The Maudlin Smile
by Inuki Ookami
Summary: Jou Joey x Seto Kaiba Yaoi Shounen-ai - Jou seems to be eternally fighting with Kaiba, but this time he's determined to win in something- but a simple game challenge turns into a different kind of game altogether- a game of love, where stakes are the
1. Selection 1: Inexplicable Imbroglio

**» the maudlin smile**  
by Inuki Ookami

**Published:** Feb **»** 23 **»** 05  
**Pairings:** Seto x Jou  
**Archive? **Ask me first. o.O;;  
**Disclaimer:** sarcasm Yes. I own _Yu-Gi-Oh_. I also own other such fine works as Santa Claus, the Bible, all of Russia and North Vietnam, and twelve pairs of shoes made out of tea cups. /sarcasm  
  
**selection 1: ****inexplicable imbroglio****  
**  
**«** **Author's Note »**

_Glad to be back and writing something. Who knows if this one will go anywhere, I'm just messing around with styles- trying to do something fresh. As always, constructive feedback helps a lot, so I welcome it, but I won't **force **you to comment or anything weird. Don't be shy to tell me that this is rubbish, and exactly why it is- I won't be offended so long as you can support your claims- I'm always looking for constructive criticism. I haven't seen Yu-Gi-Oh for a while, so I might start to lose interest in this fandom, who knows... Per usual, this story is probably set after Duelist Kingdom, but before Battle City, but we'll see how I feel. I'll try to stick with the name 'Jou' and 'Jounouchi', and not use 'Joey' at all in this.  
_

There is something to charcoal. Maybe it is that it is so black, rough, and repugnant. It is raw, and sends fragments of shrapnel flying across the page like dark embers of fury. Like a thousand chunks of magnetic fluid, smoothing across the pages of memory. Charcoal is the night and all of the wonders and evils it encompasses. The walls, black as charcoal. No, it wasn't so much the walls that were black as it was the cross-hatched figure. The wall was a single line- a corner in the darkness. The silhouette of a crouched figure sat, huddled up against the corner, its legs inexorably thrust beneath it, in a hauntingly hopeless death ballad. Who knew two simple strokes of charcoal, of black matter, could resemble such hopelessness?

Like a cinematic feature, the horrific scene unfolded right before my very eyes. The scene that no one was supposed to see or ever know. The door loomed in the simple, but eerie moonlight. Like some kind of freakish Cartesian perspective-related, warped fun house mirror, the door twisted menacingly over the figure. The night air was fresh and cool, and the window, which rested on the opposite wall of the door, was open; the window caused the drapery to gently billow as though it were some great sail. The parched, silvery light filtered through, into the stagnant room. Toward the darkened charcoal-black corner, the breathy night air was gone, replaced only with the intense feeling of oppression and claustrophobia.

At first I was aware of no other sound than the gentle wind brushing its tail against the cloth that lined the window, but soon enough I could hear it joined by another, more melancholy sound. At first I thought that perhaps it was only another sound formed by some kind of atmospheric behaviour, possibly the gusts of air blowing past some external object that I could hear in the distance, but as the corner hovered closer, I realized that it was in fact the figure which was creating the peculiar noises. They sounded muffled, like a man being gagged, and as I lent my ear more greatly to the figure, it turned into an audible sob. And then the figure was shaking, shaking uncontrollably, and rocking back and forth. Because the figure's head was still securely tucked behind it's knees, I could not make out the face at all, it was all lost in a scraggly mess of blonde hair.

"Jou! Come on, or you'll be even later than we already are for class! Sensei isn't going to be very happy!" a chirpy voice scolded.

Suddenly I was standing in the middle of a long hallway with sterile lights gleaming down upon me, and rays of sunlight flashing diagonally down across the path from the nearby window. I was standing with my nose nearly pressed right up against a picture on the wall. I was standing right outside of an art classroom, and they had posted some of the student's work up in the hallway. The particular picture was drawn in, well, I assume it was charcoal. Then again, knowing very little of art in general, I couldn't be certain. But what memory or imagined event had the piece of art triggered in me so violently? It was so visceral and vivid that I had thought it to be real. Somehow, somehow it had transported me from where I stood in the hallway to a moment that I knew had impacted me, but the second I was back in the hallway, I couldn't remember what it was I had seen... I could only remember the profound emotional impact it had on me.

"Jou? Jou, are you listening? Come on!" Anzu nagged, walking over to me, and tugging me by the baby-blue sleeve of my shirt. I turned to her quite suddenly, no longer lost in thought.

"Yeah, 'course. I don't know what got inta me!" I said, a little confused, and laughed gently, scratching the back of my head, as though it would provide her with some kind of answer.

"Well then, let's go to class! We're already five minutes late!" She said, dragged me off by the shirt sleeve, toward the class.

And so it began.


	2. Selection 2: Ominous Occurance

**» the maudlin smile**  
by Inuki Ookami

**Published:** Feb ** »** 25 **» ** 05  
**Pairings:** Seto x Jou  
**Archive? **Ask me first. o.O;;  
**Disclaimer:** I have hired a samurai who makes excellent sashimi, I also used him to intimidate the original creators and owners of _Yu-Gi-Oh _into selling me the entire franchise for exactly one nickle. Yes. That's it. I will now roll my eyes profusely at all of you.  
  
**selection 2: ominous occurance****  
**  
**«** **Author's Note »**

_Nice to see four comments already. Sat down and actually spent a little time writing something slightly longer for this chapter, and hopefully I can continue to do so, despite my midterms this week and next week (I had to write a paper due tomorrow, and I have another midterm tomorrow... aiiya.. ). Nonetheless, here's your update, we'll see what happens with this story, I guess. Sort of just experimental still.. it will probably become even more meditative, and possibly philosophical as it goes on, but we'll see._

**«** **Reader Response» **__

**Kumori Sakusha formerly Saelbu** _Here's your update, I tried to update as quickly as I could! Thanks for being the first to comment.  
**solarsenshi: **All will be explained soon... I hope T.T;;**  
chibiusaxoxo: **Uh.. yeah.. HiC kinda died.. eh-heh.. but at least I'm still writing this one + Deal with the Devil, right? o.O;; Well, I'll eat the cookies, not sure what to do about the Bibles though. 0.o;; I'm greatly honoured that you've enjoyed my writing so much. u.u;; hopefully you enjoy this story as much as High in Calcium. m.m;;;  
**Kiharu-sama: **I'm with you about the whole hating Anzu shtick, especially as far as the dub is concerned, but I don't know that it would be very realistic for me to kill her.. I think I'll just make her suffer a lot instead. Observe what would probably happen if I **DID** kill her:_

JOU: Oh my god Yugi! Anzu fell down the well... and now... she's DEAD!  
YUGI: What! Anzu fell down the well boy! Nooooo!  
((he breaks into a hysterical fit of tears, and the plot revolves around Anzu's death afterward for several chapters... which we all loathe, since she was annoying enough when she was alive))  
SETO: Bad dog, Jou. Bad dog..

* * *

I could have been a hundred miles from there, and the exact same boring lecture from the exact same teacher would have been just as boring as it was sitting in that classroom. Had I been a hundred miles from that cold, hard, wooden desk, I was certain that the monotonous, dull, droning intonation and vocal expressions of my teacher would bore me just as much as it had at that very moment; as though that voice would permeate not only through the building, but also out the window, down across the courtyard, out down the street, and then all over the city. When it got that far it would proceed to break through the clouds, the Earth's atmosphere, and at that point continue to bore everything and everyone in the entire universe, till the sun lost it's shine, and the stars twinkled out altogether. And then the world would be completely and truly black- and even then, even then that boring voice, with the nasally intonation would reverberate across the cosmos and-

"Jou-san? Jou?" a voice directly in front of me piped up. Oh. A fellow student was passing back an assignment sheet of some kind. I grabbed it between my thumb and forefinger, taking one with my right hand, and proceeded to pass the paper behind me. There weren't many left, seeing as I sat pretty close to the back of the class. I began to try and read the assignment sheet, but it was so dull that I couldn't even be bothered anymore. I quickly flipped the page over between my nimble fingers, and smoothed it out on the desk. I took a pen and scribbled a circle with a bunch of squiggly lines on it, as though to represent the Earth. I drew some cloud-like scribble-shapes around it, and then little five-pointed stars around the page, and a few more circles to represent other planets. Then I drew strong lines coming out of the Earth-resembling circle in the middle, and traveling through the clouds, and all over the page. I wrote "sensei's whiny voice" and drew arrows connecting it to the lines that were coming from the Earth-circle. I smirked wryly at the page.

The boring speech from our teacher continued on and on... and on. I stared glumly out of the window, running a hand through my soft blonde mess of hair. I so desperately wanted to be out in that sunshine, playing Duel Monsters, or watching Yugi play would be great! Or even just hanging out with my friends at the mall or elsewhere would be nice... really, anywhere but where I was right then would have been awfully nice. But it wasn't reality. In reality, I was stuck in the classroom, listening to a boring speech. I think I even caught Anzu yawning once- though I knew she'd never admit it. Hm. Up late last night with some cute guy, huh, Anzu? I smirked to myself. No, no way. Anzu was too much of a goody-two-shoes to ever admit to going on a date either. All she ever seemed to go on about was friendship and such. I mean, sometimes she made some legitimate points, but to hear her constantly banter at everyone about the true values of friendship got kinda annoying sometimes, ya know? I mean, there's only so much talk of friendship a person can take. Usually I just want to go kick the badguy in the head, rather than try to talk sense into them. I mean, talking sense would never work with some of those jerks, like Bandit Keith or that freak show Pegasus. Even that little runt Weevil or Rex Raptor couldn't really put aside their selfishness for a moment to try and contemplate friendship or morals. Really, they just needed to be shown who was boss.

Well, that was the wonderful thing about Duel Monsters, wasn't it? That one could prove oneself without violence. Yugi, for instance, had been able to defeat even the biggest of bullies like Panik, and teach tricksters like Mai lessons without even once resorting to a single direct blow, but when I had previously wanted to get my way, I did nothing but hurt people. Well, what made Seto Kaiba any better then? Didn't resort to physical violence as well? He was the one always trying to injure and attack me. Of course, he never did any serious harm... not that I could recall. It wasn't like he wanted me dead or anything, right? So why was it that Kaiba dueled people like Yugi, instead of just trying to beat him? Perhaps there was something about honour or integrity involved. Or maybe he just knew that Yugi wouldn't stand a chance against him physically. Perhaps that was the case. Well, maybe if I avoided him or something, his bullying would come to an end. Wasn't that the right way to do it? Well, Yugi had never avoided any of his enemies before, had he? He had always faced them with honour and integrity, and dueled them justly. Hadn't he? Everything was settled by Duel Monsters duels among my friends and I, right? But I knew that I was kidding myself to think I stood a chance against Kaiba. Heart of the Cards, or no Heart of the Cards, it kind of required me having combinations of cards that were actually stronger than Kaiba's. I was sure that the CEO not only had strong cards, like his Blue Eyes White Dragons, but also had superb skills, as much as I hated to admit it. Kaiba had beaten me down time and time again, duel after duel, when I had boastfully thrown myself into battle to try and beat him. So there was no way I could stand on that kind of shaky ground, especially not with him being the head of Kaiba Corp. I mean, that was really just the nail in the coffin so far as my chances were concerned. Argh! Why was I thinking about that jerk anyway? He didn't deserve to be thought about!

My thoughts were interrupted, again, by the bell. I sighed, happy and relieved that class had ended, but tired and confused from my thoughts and where they had led me.

* * *

Somehow I should have known that even the weather wouldn't give me a break. It wasn't sunny by the time classes were over for the day. In fact, it wasn't just that it wasn't sunny, the sky was actually a very threatening gray. I was almost afraid that some great sky spirit would swoop down at any moment and attack me... or that the very skies themselves would form into a giant, vicious mouth, and swallow me whole. Once I had finished the standard customs of leaving the building, and saying goodbye to various other students on my way, I began to slowly trudge across the front of the school, walking in the direction of my house. It wasn't like anyone would be home anyway, so I'd likely have the place to myself for a little while, which would be nice. I was slightly annoyed about the weather, but didn't mind it terribly.

Of course, that's right when it got worse. It had to get worse, it always does. I guess I jinxed myself, hoping that my day might improve. As the day had worn on, my spirits decreased, but I still tried to fight the instinct to be sad. Instead I just faced the sobering feelings by throwing my hopes haphazardly all over the place. I was disappointed to find out that Yugi had to go home to help his grandfather with the store with some card restocking, or something along those lines. I really wasn't paying that much attention to the specifics, not that I ever did, I guess. I do have a tendency to forget things, which is rather annoying. It's probably also partially the fact that I don't pay all that much attention to begin with, but nevermind that. Back to my friends. Honda muttered something darkly about his parents not being very happy with his marks as of late, and Anzu had vanished completely... strange for someone who did nothing but give long speeches on how important friends are. I supposed that I could have hung out with Ryou, but things were still a little bit strange between myself and him, ever since that weird dream I had back in Duelist Kingdom, where he tried to battle Yugi... but that _was_ only a dream, after all, right? Right? I couldn't be too sure of anything anymore... not since that last deciding battle between Yugi and that jerkface, Pegasus. I mean, I remember after Yugi's duel with that smug little bastard, Kaiba, how Yugi completely freaked out about losing control of himself and all... or the whole thing with Pegasus trapping people's... souls? Was any of that for real? Could I believe that kind of stuff? I mean, magic wasn't real. Right?... I guess I didn't have any real answers for that one, but it never seemed real. I mean, why should the bad-guys get to harness it? It wasn't right. It wasn't fair... aren't the villains always supposed to lose? So why did Kaiba win that battle- cheating, nonetheless, against Yugi? It _was_ totally unfair, though Yugi still lost. If what my pal Yug had said was true, about something... some spirit or creature taking control of him, then didn't that mean that Kaiba, with none of this so-called magic, beat Yugi, even with magic? Wasn't that a peculiar thing... All this 'magic' business didn't seem to make any logical sense at all; then again, what was I talking about? When did _anything_ make 'logical sense' in my life?

And what the hell was with my preoccupation with thinking about that jerk Kaiba so much lately? I mean, I knew my thoughts centered on my friends, and Duel Monsters, a _lot_ lately, and I guess that naturally led to Mr. Big-shot CEO, since he was so heavily involved in Duelist Kingdom, and the current situation with Duel Monsters, developing new technology and all that, and running Kaiba Corp., but did that justify it for certain? I mean... I knew he was getting under my skin, but maybe I shouldn't let him so much. Sure, the jerk pissed me off, but I could avoid him for a bit. I could show him who was the better man. I didn't need to take his crap anymore, or even respond to it at all, I could simply just-

"Hey mutt, going to get all wet like a little puppy caught in the rain?" He laughed across the front of the school at me, sneering as he walked; his metal briefcase shimmering, even though the sun was behind those dark rain clouds. I didn't even look up, just stayed focused on the grass beneath my feet. Watching each delicate green strand, and the way it formed a carpet over the ground. Don't look up I told myself, don't look up. You'll only be giving into your immature whims. You'll only be as bad as he is if you reply; you're better than him, you don't need to take this crap from him anymore. You can-

"What's the matter pooch? Didn't hear me the first time? Gone deaf, huh? Or are you just so incredibly stupid you can't even recognize your master when you see him anymore?" Kaiba jeered, as he walked toward me. I kept trying not to do anything, really, I did. I knew I was shaking with anger by that point though... but I tried. I swear I did I-

"Who the hell do you think you are, you bully? You think you can boss me around, just because you have a job and make lots of money? Or because you own some stupid company you inherited from your family anyway? Or because you bought better cards than me, and use that to claim you have better skill than my friends and I? Just because you have three frickin' Blue Eyes White Dragons in your deck? Just because you get better marks than me in school? You think you're so superior, huh? Well you can just shove it where the sun don't shine, because I don't give a damn! I've had enough of you and your crap. At least I _have_ friends, and I didn't have to buy them like you would! You're so annoying, you know that? Nobody would ever like you for who you really are, because if they got to know you, then they'd realize what a total jackass you are in reality!" I shouted at him, unable to hold it in anymore, I had looked up at him, and the second we made eye contact, I just flew at him, spitting insults and yelling and screaming, my entire face burning with fury.

"Me? Annoying? That's a laugh, you miserable little mutt. You're the one who always gets in _my_ way, trying to foil my plans, and piss _me_ off with your stupid little friendship speeches. It is clear that you aren't even worth my time, you pathetic little ingrate. You should be glad that I even bother to grace you with my presence for more than a moment. And you can at least begin to admit that you're just jealous of me, because of my impeccable dueling skills, my incredibly intellect and wit, my stylish taste in clothing, and my amazing looks! You're not even in my league, mutt, now go chase your own tail or something, before you really do begin to annoy me." He grinned at me, his teeth flashing a vicious smile, as the storm clouds rumbled above.

"You sadistic bastard, stop trying to turn everything around on me! You think you're some big hot-shot, huh? Well you can go rot in hell for all I care!" I snorted, making a wide sweeping motion with my hand, as if to dispose of him. Quicker than a flash of lightning, he reached out, and snatched my arm, and then yanked me toward him, so that my head was right up against his shoulder. He was so close I could feel his warm breath against my ear.

"If you speak to me like that again," he whispered into my ear in a low, menacing voice, "I'll make _certain _you regret it." Then he drew back, turned away from me, and walked to where his limo was conveniently parked, his coat sweeping behind him in the breeze. His driver opened the door for him, waiting expectedly. Right before he got in, he looked up at me, for a single second, long enough that the distance was closed between the two of us- his cerulean eyes shooting me a look that came free with daggers. Then he was gone, and the limo was driving off a few moments later.

I stood, completely stunned. Had he really threatened me? What was up with that? It wasn't at all like him... he didn't just sound serious, he sounded really weird. Like... vicious... or evil, or something. I think I was scared, but didn't want to admit it to myself.

A clap of thunder in the distance and a flash of light that definitely wasn't the sun off in the distance greeted me, waking me up from where I was standing, as I felt my drops of water falling on my coat and face. Soon enough I could hear it splashing against the pavement, until it turned into a steady beat.

"Oh great!" I moaned to myself as I rolled my eyes, made sure my bag was zipped up so it wouldn't get all soaking wet inside, and then shook my head to get some of the water out of it, before trudging glumly home through the rain and the puddles that had already begun to form on the streets and sidewalks of Domino City.


End file.
